


Dusty Tollbooth

by Taupefox59



Series: Quantam Tollbooth [5]
Category: DCU - Comicverse, His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, Red Robin (Comics), Superboy (Comic), Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: Daemons, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-15
Updated: 2013-01-15
Packaged: 2017-11-25 16:16:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/640700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taupefox59/pseuds/Taupefox59
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Tollbooth adventures continue, but this time they boys end up with some new friends. (Or Animal Spirit Guides. Or Anthropomorphised Soul Shards. Or Something Else. Daemons, perhaps?)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dusty Tollbooth

**Author's Note:**

> This was written before I knew about that whole "Court of Owls Thing", so just pretend that doesn't happen.
> 
> This is un-beta'd, if you catch anything, please let me know. Constructive criticism always appreciated!

 

The Phone Booth dropped out of the vortex of space-time and both occupants collapsed, falling to the all consuming, soul-ripping pain beyond the scope of anything they'd ever felt before.

The booth landed easily, and its unconcious occupants slid out onto the ground.

 

Kon awoke to Tim's elbow digging insistantly into his kidney, feeling like he'd done about fifteen rounds with a kryptonite battering ram. Or perhaps more like he'd had a heart attack; it was this deep aching pain from beneath his breastbone, like someone had carved a hollow between his lungs with a dull spoon. His aura was shredded in a way he'd never felt before, like it had been stretched to the point of breaking and sent through a cheese grater. He reached out with it gingerly before pulling back. It seemed as though there was a piece that had been torn from the middle of it. Every part of him ached.

There was a tapping noise coming from outside the phone booth, but Kon couldn't see what it was from his current position underneath his friend. “Mmmm...Tim, man. You've gotta move..”

“mmmhhnnnn.” Tim mumbled and shifted but didn't wake up. The tapping at the phone booth door increased a measure.

“C'mon buddy.” Conner moved slowly, due to his own aching muscles and out of care to his friend. Easing up, Conner slid against the wall of the phone booth until he could get his balance back and stand up straight. The world rocked but Kon just closed his eyes and rode out the brief moments of nausea. Once he trusted himself to keep on his feet, he pulled Tim's arm over his shoulder.

“Tim. You with me yet?” Kon asked.

Tim's eyes fluttered and he gave another soft moan, but didn't seem to be in any hurry to surface. He seemed responsive though, so Kon figured he didn't have to worry yet.

Conner looked through the plexi-glass door to see where they had landed. It looked like some kind of park. There weren't too many people around, and there was a bench nearby. Kon decided to head for that. Destination in mind, he pushed the door of the phone booth open.

He was immediately set upon by two very irate birds. Kon distantly figured the birds were probably the source of the tapping noise from earlier, but was mostly concerned about keeping them from Tim. Kon reflexively reached out with his aura to keep the birds at bay, and whimpered a bit when he was again hit with the painful shredded feeling.

“Stop that! It won't get better if you keep picking at it!”

Kon stopped and stared. There really wasn't anyone around...except for the birds. He peered at them closely. One was small owl-looking thing, maybe the size of an apple, it would easily fit in the palm of his hand. It was the grey of Gotham's most forbidding sky with dark charcoal tail and wing feathers. It was almost fluffy looking, with wide golden eyes.

The other was bright yellow with sky blue crest and tail feathers, the underside of its wings was an unrelenting scarlet. It's head was a lighter yellow with a dark streak from the crest on its head to the tip of its beak and a dark 'V' shaped mark just above its yellow eyes. Conner felt bizarrely connected to it and it made him uneasy. He also had a feeling that the bird was the one that had been talking, which didn't exactly make him feel any better.

“Uhm.” Kon said.

“You both just need some time to heal.” The yellow dinasour-bird thing was definitely talking.

“Wait. Who - How? What?” Kon wasn't even really sure what question he was asking, but those all sounded reasonable, so he was going with them.

The yellow bird settled on his shoulder and Kon couldn't deny the wave of...peace...that settled through him. It's beak started carding through his hair, and comfort seemed to radiate from the contact.

“Kon-El; Conner Kent. My name's Zelkia. I'm your dæmon.”

“What is that?”

“I'm a part of you, kind of like part of your soul. Coming into this world pulled me out.”

“That's why my aura is all...wack?”

The yellow bird let out a trilling laugh, “Yeah. We've never dealt with anything like this before. We had no way to be prepared for what it was like when I was actualized. It'll take some getting used to.”

“Are - are you going to just...stay _out_ now?” Kon waved his hands to try and encompass the world, “like, when we travel...are you going to stay _you_ , or...” he trailed off, not really knowing how to finish the sentence.

“I think so. I'm not really sure. I'm still young. I don't know much that you don't.”

“So until now, you were just, a piece of me?”

“That's more or less correct.” Zelkia said.

Kon nodded in reply. He still didn't really understand where Zelkia had come from. Apparently she was a piece of his soul – which made sense, given how he was feeling – so if they left this world, would she get re-absorbed, or whatever? Kon frowned. His head still hurt, and getting Tim to the park bench seemed like a better thing to worry about that newly-personified soul bits. Kon pulled Tim into a bridal-carry and started walking.

The owl-creature was fluttering by Tim's shoulder as Kon moved steadily toward the bench.

“He'll be fine.” That was the owl-thing talking.

Kon decided this world was really freaking weird.

“He's just used to keeping things disconnected from each other. Everything in it's own place. I kind of mucked that up for him.” the Owl-Thing continued.

“So. You're like. A soul-bit of Tim?”

“Yes.”

“And that...”

“Timothy spends a good deal of energy on keeping a well-organaized mind. Having me torn out was rather disuptive.”

“uhm...”

“My name is Risvale.”

“Okay. Risvale. And Tim is...?”

“He's...recalibrating. Don't worry about it.”

Kon thought this over. Part of his soul was apparently a dinasour-bird painted like a primary school, and part of Tim was a snippy little owl thing.

“So, if you guys were part of us, how come you're not _guys_?” Kon asked.

“Gender is a social construct.” Risvale stated primly. Zelkia huffed at this and sent Risvale a warning glare.

“It is actually quite common to have a dæmon of the opposite gender.” Zelkia said.

Kon laid Tim out on the park bench, and once Risvale seemed satisfied with the arrangement, sat down to use the bench as a back rest. Zelkia settled in his lap and Conner began absent-mindedly playing with the feathers of her crest.

“Zelkia?”

“Yeah?”

“...What are you exactly? I mean, I recognize you, from things I saw in the Fortress of Solitude, but, what are you?”

“I'm not sure, Kon. When we were told what I was, we didn't know Kyrptonian yet.”

Kon didn't exactly know what to say to that. He felt somehow like he'd let Zelkia down.

Zelkia picked up on it and nuzzled closer. “Kon, we didn't know. If we went back now, we could figure it out.”

Feeling strangely content with that, Kon leaned against the bench and enjoyed the sunlight.

** **

 

Tim surfaced slowly trying to correlate his physical feelings with the attack on his mind. He was still tying together shreds where holes had been punched through his mental defenses. He became aware of sunlight and a slight breeze. There was something, a warm weight resting above his collar bone.Not in the phone booth then. They had been flying, there had been pain, and now...Tim forced his eyes open.

Kon was resting back against the bench. There was a brightly colored bird in his lap.

“Kon?”

“Tim!” Conner shot up and turned around, disrupting Zelkia in the process. She took it in stride though, returning to settle on his shoulder as he stood.

“How are you feeling?” Kon asked.

“Like someone punched a whole through my headspace and put me on the spin cycle.” Tim said. His hand automatically went up to the weight on his collarbone as he moved to sit up.

“Surprisingly accurate.” Risvale said from her perch in Tim's hand.Tim pulled her close and curled around her, drawing his knees up and curving forward.

“How...I can _feel_ you...”

“I'm Risvale. I'm part of you. The hole that was punched out of your psyche.” She said with a slight bird-laugh.

“You're not part of me now. We're separate entities.”

“You know that's not true.” She nipped at his finger affectionately.

“Why are you here now?”

“Something about coming to this world. It tore us out of you.”

Tim decided to leave that for a moment. He turned to Kon and nodded at Zelkia. “That bird looks Kryptonian.”

“She is.” Kon acknowledged.

“My name is Zelkia.”

“Well. It's lovely to meet you.” Tim said cordially. Zelkia laughed her bird laugh, shaking out her plumage.

“You feeling better now?” Kon asked, “You've been out for a bit.”

“I'll be fine.” Tim said, uncurling and standing up but never letting go of Risvale. He wavered a bit as he stood and glanced back to Kon. “Well. Maybe some food would be good?”

“Food is always good!” Kon said with a smile, “Let's go get some!”

Zelkia took to the sky, calling out her agreement. Risvale settled onto Tim's shoulder, just beneath his left ear.

“There's a place.” Tim said, pointing to a hotdog stand on the corner.

“Perfect!” Kon slung an arm around Tim's shoulder and they headed towards food.

 

**Author's Note:**

> If you're on tumblr, feel free to come say hi! [ You can find me here! ](http://taupefox59.tumblr.com/)


End file.
